D-Day invasion's final active ship houses history in S.F.

The Jeremiah O'Brien enters the English Channel in 1994 after traveling from San Francisco for 50th anniversary ceremonies marking D-Day.

The Jeremiah O'Brien enters the English Channel in 1994 after traveling from San Francisco for 50th anniversary ceremonies marking D-Day.

Image 2 of 2

The Jeremiah O'Brien passes under the Golden Gate Bridge en route to Europe.

The Jeremiah O'Brien passes under the Golden Gate Bridge en route to Europe.

D-Day invasion's final active ship houses history in S.F.

1 / 2

Back to Gallery

Seventy years ago, the largest armada in history delivered U.S.., British and Canadian troops onto the beaches of Normandy to push the Nazis out of France. Just one ship among the 5,000 that took part in the invasion on June 6, 1944, is still functioning - the Jeremiah O'Brien, now peacefully at anchor at San Francisco's Pier 45,where it's a floating museum telling the history of the U.S. merchant marine.

The Jeremiah O'Brien was one of 2,710 Liberty ships built in American shipyards during the war, and one of two still in existence - the remnants of a fleet that played a vital role in the Allied victory.

The Liberty ships were a lifeline to Britain during the grim year before the United States entered the war, when that island nation stood alone against Hitler. Their merchant marine crews braved German U-boats in the North Atlantic as they carried troops and supplies for the Allies. They were an essential part of what President Franklin Roosevelt called "the great arsenal of democracy."

The Jeremiah O'Brien was built in South Portland, Maine - one of 15 U.S. shipyards, including the Kaiser operation in Richmond and Marinship in Sausalito, where the job was to crank out Liberty ships as quickly as possible.

'Ugly ducklings'

Their squat, utilitarian appearance led Time magazine to dub them "ugly ducklings," but the name that stuck was coined in September 1941, when FDR delivered a speech on the day the first of the new ships, the Patrick Henry, was launched. Recalling the patriot's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, Roosevelt said the new class of ships would bring liberty to Europe.

The Liberty ships were built in direct response to Germany's savagely effective U-boat campaign. In the first years of the war, German submarines were sinking British ships faster than Britain could rebuild them. Desperate, Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked FDR for help.

To get around America's official neutrality, FDR came up with the Lend-Lease program, in which the U.S. would supply Britain, the Soviet Union and other allies with materiel. Those guns, ammunition, food and other supplies were largely delivered by Liberty ships.

Years of service

The ships were supposed to last only five years, and it was said that one successful voyage would fulfill their mission. In fact, the Liberty ships proved to be incredibly tough customers. Fewer than 200 were sunk, and many of the survivors plied the world's oceans as cargo workhorses for years.

As merchant marine Capt. Walter W. Jaffee recounts in "SS Jeremiah O'Brien: The History of a Liberty Ship From the Battle of the Atlantic to the 21st Century," the Jeremiah O'Brien went into service in June 1943. A little over a month later, the ship, with its crew of 58 - some of whom manned its two 3-inch cannons and eight 20mm machine guns - headed into the submarine-infested waters of the Atlantic with a cargo of steel and grain.

It was part of a convoy of 23 ships and three escorts. Convoys greatly reduced the risk of U-boat attacks, but it was crucial not to fall behind: The German submarines feasted on ships that lost their convoy position.

The Jeremiah O'Brien and its convoy arrived in Scotland safely and made it back to New York in September. After two more successful voyages delivering ammunition, trucks and tanks, the Jeremiah O'Brien returned to Britain.

Different this time

When the crew arrived in late April 1944, they quickly realized that something big was afoot. Special training in aircraft recognition, gas-attack drills and increased gunnery practice began.

On June 3, the ship headed south in a vast convoy, filling the ocean as far as the eye could see. Three days later, the Allied hammer fell on Hitler's Fortress Europe. On D-Day, 200,000 soldiers aboard the armada hit Normandy beaches with names that are now legendary - Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword.

The crew on the Jeremiah O'Brien was feverish with excitement and fear. The gunners had cut their hair into Mohawks, out of camaraderie with the Mohawk-coiffed U.S. paratroopers who launched the invasion just after midnight, dropping behind enemy lines.

Finally, at 10:20 p.m., three days after D-Day - June 9 - the Jeremiah O'Brien received orders to set sail for Omaha Beach. It was carrying 10 officers, 563 troops, 135 armored vehicles and 161 tons of explosives.

The beach where 2,500 American troops had died was now largely secure. The Jeremiah O'Brien came under sporadic attack from German planes as its troops hit the sand the morning of June 10, but the good luck that protected it throughout the war held - none of the bombings found their mark.

Over the next three weeks, the Jeremiah O'Brien made 11 trips between Britain and Normandy, carrying 3,492 troops, 1,746 vehicles, 14 police dogs, 341 tons of dynamite and 117 tons of special cargo.

After a final tour in the Pacific, the Jeremiah O'Brien sailed under the Golden Gate in January 1946, its wartime duty done. It was tied up in the mothball Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay.

Saved from scrap

Most of the other Liberty ships were sold for scrap, but a visionary admiral named Tom Patterson organized a campaign to save the Jeremiah O'Brien. In 1979, it steamed out of the Reserve Fleet, under its own power for the first time in 33 years.

In spring 1994, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the Jeremiah O'Brien and a crew of 56 volunteers, average age 70, left San Francisco and sailed again to Normandy - a stirring journey covered in a memorable series of dispatches by Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte. After an emotional return to Britain, the crew sailed for Omaha Beach and other points in France.

As the Jeremiah O'Brien sailed down the Seine to Le Havre in a "liberty armada" of Allied vessels, 6 million cheering French citizens lined the banks, paying tribute to the ship, and the ships, that had lived up to their name.

Editor's note

Every corner in San Francisco has an astonishing story to tell. Every Saturday, Gary Kamiya's Portals of the Past will tell one of those lost stories, using a specific location to illuminate San Francisco's extraordinary history - from the days when giant mammoths wandered through what is now North Beach, to the Gold Rush delirium, the dot-com madness and beyond.

Trivia time

Last week's trivia question: What famous drink was invented at the Bank Exchange bar?

Answer: Pisco Punch.

This week's trivia question: Where is Little Hollywood?

Gary Kamiya is the author of the best-selling book "Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco," which was just awarded the 2013 Northern California Book Award in creative nonfiction. All the material in Portals of the Past is original for The San Francisco Chronicle. E-mail: metro@sfchronicle.com